New Delhi: As India Inc treads with cautious optimism amid improving economic climate, it is likely to brighten this Diwali for its employees with bonuses, though tempered ones, experts say.

After weathering difficult days due to the global downturn companies are seeing positive sentiment trickling in, which may propel them to dole out bonuses this Diwali.

“With things looking up companies are likely to go ahead with their usual policy on Diwali bonuses this time as increments and appraisals have either been postponed or not given in the past year. To keep up the employee morale companies are expected to give bonuses to their staff," Info Edge, owners of job portal Naukri.com COO Hitesh Oberoi said.

Recruitment firm TeamLease Services Managing director Ashok Reddy said, “as a lot of companies are moving to variable compensation to reward performance and the same would be applicable to payout based on output variables, it is difficult to predict how it is going to be for employees. Even if they get bonuses, we do not feel they will be huge."

Meanwhile, hiring activities have started looking up and people have restarted floating resumes and looking for greener pastures after a lull in the job market for nearly a year. Thus, industry experts believe firms will give out bonuses or variable pay hikes for retaining employees.

“The bonus pay outs are expected to be selective in most cases based on the employees’ performance and could be in the range of 10-15% on an average,“ global consultancy firm AbsolutData Research and Analytics Co-founder and EVP Corporate Development Sudeshna Datta said.

“Given that the impact of the economic meltdown still continues, it is unrealistic to expect huge bonuses or bonuses that would match pre-recession times to be given to employees immediately. It will take a while before the market would reach the stage of complete revival," Datta added.

Besides, Reddy said the sentiment has improved leading to a cautious optimism in the industry towards the future.

“Most believe that the worst is behind us and we should start seeing a more (if moderate to start with) positive outcome/plan going forward," he added.

“Business is picking up after the downturn in all the major sectors and this gives us good reasons to continue being optimistic. At AbsolutData we are recruiting for certain key positions in the company, for instance, the positions related to our India business," Datta added.